And so, with Gabe's current situation - questing endlessly to find his lover's murderer - in mind, we can go back to his human life, over a hundred years ago, when he found his sister's new, and altogether mysterious, aversion to the daytime.
For several months their lives continued as normal - as normal as the unwitting brother of a vampire could be, anyway. Gabe had not seen Dawn at all during the day ever since she arrived late all those weeks ago, but she would come in shortly after sunrise and he would go home shortly afterwards.
Dawn was still a wonderful serving maid, talking to her clients and making them laugh at all the right times. She seemed to have gotten even better at it, lately, when Gabe thought about all the extra gifts that the men she worked with were giving her. And, still, that mysterious stranger - Nigel, that was his name - that mysterious Nigel would often come and see Dawn.
And now Gabe noticed that Dawn wasn't eating or drinking anything, either. This was a girl who used to delight in stealing teacakes and sandwiches from the kitchen at every opportunity; a girl who would sit down and share a beer with Gabe - despite how unbecoming of a lady alcohol was, Dawn still used to sneak beers whenever she could. And now she seemed to have sworn off of all the things she used to enjoy. It had to be Nigel!
And so, one evening when Nigel left before Dawn, Gabe was lying in wait outside and followed him. He wanted to see where he went afterwards, and Dawn must have been staying there, because she had stopped sleeping in her bed at home.
Gabe followed for a long time until Nigel reached a small cottage on the other side of town. Odd that Nigel would have walked this far to go to a tavern, when en route there were several others. Nigel entered the house and Gabe stayed outside, waiting in the shadows.
The house itself was old, yet charming. It had a well-kept garden and the door and walls were in very good condition - no holes or cracks anywhere. He also saw the house had window shutters, but he didn't really notice this or think it had any significance. He would know later what it meant.
Nigel remained in the house for a long time - Gabe was now annoyed by the window shutters, since they were all locked it meant he couldn't peek inside. And he was curious as to what Nigel was doing, alone in his house, with no lamp or even candle lit. There was also no smoke coming out of the chimney, he realised, despite the bitterly cold nights of the British winter.
Eventually Nigel left again, closing the door carefully behind him. Gabe sat there, hiding in the shadows, and followed him to his next destination; the more, well, decrepit part of town where the town's lowlifes lived. The beggars, the thieves, even some of the servants. Nigel walked through there with the confidence of a man who has nothing with him worth stealing. Gabe grabbed his pocket knife, keeping it ready.
As Gabe watched, Nigel stood in the middle of the street, clearly waiting for something. A short, skinny woman appeared, dressed in rags with skin so pockmarked she looked as though she had gone through a windmill along with the grain.
With an apparent disregard for the possibility of anyone watching them, Nigel brought the woman close to him, and buried his face in her neck. Gabe squirmed a little, made uncomfortable by a gentleman such as Nigel going so far as to embrace this urchin. The woman, for her part, moaned in ecstasy, sounding for all the world like a harlot except in that her moan, in all its exuberance, seemed to be genuine. Gabe looked on, baffled, and sneaked closer, trying to get a better look.
Then the realization came upon him like a shock - this man was drinking the degenerate woman's blood, wasn't he?
"Vampire."
Gabe murmured to himself, barely audible, for he had heard in the folklore that vampires had a supernatural sense of hearing. They could turn into bats and wolves, too, and he didn't know much about bats but he knew wolves were dangerous and had wicked senses. This knowledge carried with it a terrible weight, despite everything it explained about Nigel - why there was no fire or even candle flame in his house; why they had not once, not ever, seen him during the day, and why, most of all, Dawn's behavior had become so odd of late.
He shuddered, the fateful thought that his sister had to be a supernatural creature of some sort beginning to consume him. She was his best friend, and yet she hadn't told him. He wondered if that had been by choice, or if she wasn't allowed to.
Then he realised something that made his blood run cold - his sister was dead, and there was no way that the Almighty would allow such an awful creature into Heaven.
What a terrible thought - that she would die one day, and her death would be final, with no hereafter!
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